Hertford Theatre Week 2020

Monday 20th to Saturday 25th April

Hertford Theatre Week is a six-night drama festival with a different production every night in the heart of Hertford. Teams travel from all over the country to compete for trophies and the chance to compete in the NDFA All Winners Festival. 2020 sees the 59th Hertford Theatre Week and brings the number of productions to 354. The Festival was instigated when a small committee from Hertford Dramatic & Operatic Society, investigating the possibilities of further stimulating amateur drama, invited neighbouring Societies and Drama Groups to perform one of their own productions under festival conditions. With rules agreed and sufficient support promised to ensure a full week's programme of six different plays, 1962 saw the first Hertford Theatre Week. Sponsorship of the first ten years was provided by the directors of the Hertfordshire Mercury and County Press, the publishers of our local newspaper and supporters of local drama. Since 1972 Hertford Dramatic & Operatic Society has not only been the hosts and organisers but also the main sponsors.

In recent years the Festival has been completely self-financing and, unlike many full-length play festivals which draw sponsorship from their local authority or commercial organisations, our only revenue comes from the Box Office sales.

The Festival is run by a team of unpaid volunteers, many of who give up some of their annual holiday to work on the competition and whose only reward is their love of theatre and the satisfaction of being involved in what is now recognised as one of the leading full-length drama competitions in the country.

We are proud to say that in 2015, yet again, Hertford Theatre Week provided the winner of the NDFA British All-Winners Drama Festival, held at the Rhoda McGaw Theatre in Woking, Surrey, and in 2016 the Hertford Theatre Week team were proud to host this national event for the second time at Hertford Theatre. 2017 saw Hertford Theatre Week provide the runner-up at the All-Winners Drama Festival held in Barnsley.

Programme

The 2020 programme will be available early in 2020

Information & Tickets

Curtain up at 7:45pm Monday to Friday, 7:15 on Saturday.
You can purchase tickets for individual performances or for the entire week.
Ticket prices will be available in early 2020.

AVAILABLE FROM 2nd MARCH 2020
Tickets may be purchased with cash, cheque, Maestro, Visa or MasterCard from the Box-Office, by telephone on 01992 531500, or online here.
For postal bookings please send a stamped addressed envelope with your cheque payable to EHDC to:
Hertford Theatre Week Bookings, The Box Office, Hertford Theatre, The Wash, Hertford SG14 1PS

The Box Office is open Monday to Saturday 10:00am to 5:00pm.

Hertford Theatre Week is an adjudicated Drama Competition and a qualifying festival for the National Drama Festivals Association All-Winners Festival.

In fairness to the competing teams latecomers will not normally be admitted to the auditorium until a suitable break in the performance.

Weekly Ticket holders are eligible to vote for the Audience Appreciation Award on the final evening.

The presentation of the awards will take place after the Saturday performance.

Please note, in extreme circumstances, the programme may be subject to change without notice.

Refunds can only be given if there is no performance.

Other Local Drama Festivals

If you are someone who enjoys competitive theatre, why not also visit the Welwyn Drama Festival for one-act plays or the Welwyn Youth Drama Festival, for young teams, also presenting one-act plays.

Adjudicator for 2020

Chris Jaeger MBE, FRSA, GODA

Chris Jaeger is a highly-experienced writer, musician, actor and director. For 12 years he wrote and directed the Swan Theatre professional pantomime and the professional outdoor Summer show. He has written a one-woman show about the music hall star Vesta Tilley, the lyrics of a ‘Worcestershire Song Cycle’ which was premiered at the Three Choirs Festival and a play about Charles Stuart. Also, he has written an ‘energy play’ commissioned by Worcester Bosch and a fifty-year history of the Swan Theatre for the 2015 Golden Anniversary - also, a play about King John and Magna Carta commissioned by Worcester Cathedral and four new plays all of which premiered at the Swan Theatre in 2016. He also wrote highly successful one-woman show about Agatha Christie, which is currently touring the country.